I decided to read and review Daughters In Danger: Helping Our Girls Thrive In Today’s Culture by Elayne Bennett, because it reminded me of the book Unprotected: A Campus Psychiatrist Reveals How Political Correctness in Her Profession Endangers Every Student by Miriam Grossman. I read that book when it first came out in 2007 and it still remains one of my favorites and one that I quote often.

This is clearly a topic that appeals to me. Being active in pro-life ministries and staying current in news relevant to women’s health and wellness, I feel that I have a firm grasp on the overt and subtle dangers facing this generation of young women. But the desire to read this book was somehow amplified now that I have a daughter. I feel like whatever I know – or think that I know – it is ultimately my responsibility to constantly educate and empower myself to protect my baby girl.

From the Amazon.com book description:

Respected family advocate Elayne Bennett brings hope and encouragement to families and shows the way to save our daughters from the many threats they face. Many girls today are caught up in a world that devalues them and prioritizes perceived needs and desires, in ways that will break their very hearts. Much of our culture undermines girls and damages their souls.

Elayne Bennett has worked tirelessly in urban, suburban, and rural environments to bring hope and guidance to the lives of girls. In Daughters in Danger she reveals:

How American families can rescue daughters from the negative and destructive patterns of our culture

Why progressive feminism is the wrong answer and an inadequate solution

How mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, friends, schools, colleges and universities can be involved in saving our daughters

The success of the Best Friends and Best Men program models

We all—especially families—bear the responsibility for encouraging and supporting, training and directing, loving and cherishing daughters everywhere.  This book is an inspiring call to take action for their sakes.

My Thoughts On The Book

The Good

I mentioned above that the book description reminded me of Unprotected by Grossman, and I was pleased to see that Bennett quotes her work extensively in Daughters in Danger.

Like Unprotected, Daughter In Danger is painstakingly researched and extremely thorough. And just a quick warning – it is not pretty at times. The real life stories and examples Bennett references are at times gory, gritty and stomach twisting. But it is a shock of reality that parents need to grasp in order to understand what kind of a world and what kind of problems our little ones are going to face.

I feel that too many “empower your daughter” books and articles tend to water down the real perils of young womanhood. This book does not do that. The first half of the book is painting a broad and vivid picture of the world our daughters will inherit. The second half of the book addressed what we can do to change our environment, truly arm our girls for future temptations and troubles, and be wiser guardians or our girls and our community.

There is precise and practical information for mothers, sisters, fathers, brothers, schools, colleges, peer groups and the rest of the community – all laid out individually, not lumped into generalities. All are practical steps to help put a stop to the moral threats this generation of girls face daily.

The Bad

My ONLY complaint with this book is that while Bennett goes into painstakingly thorough details concerning sex, STDs, peer pressure, emotional abuse, physical abuse, drug use, body image, bullying, alcohol consumption and myriad other pitfalls for young women – she only mentions abortion briefly and in passing. With one out of every four women in American today having abortions – and almost half of those women suffering severe depression and shattered lives after the fact – it simply boggles my brain that this is a topic that would go untouched on as a potential danger to our daughters.

I suspect that the author may be pro-choice, as is author Dr. Miriam Grossman. This is not meant as an insult or a belittling point. I deeply admire Grossman and am a fan of her writing and all the work she is doing to protect and serve women, and I am ready to place Bennett of the shelf of great women doing great things for our girls. I just think it is a shame and a bit of a hypocrisy that she does not extend her compassion to those women in the womb, who are in most need of our protection and love.

So while this book is definitely worth reading – especially if you have a daughter! – it does not paint a full picture of the dangers facing our children. However, if you were to employ the action steps Bennett outlines in empowering our girls, then issues like unwanted pregnancies and abortion would not be a factor in the first place!

The only other portion of the book that was a little flat for me, was the concluding chapters, where Bennett’s inner-city outreach group “Best Friends” is detailed in what feels like a giant advertisement. Nothing wrong with that, and it’s interesting to learn about the program, but it is an odd departure from the largely informational flow of the book.

Overall, I am QUITE impressed with this book, and would certainly recommend it to others. You may be surprised with what you learn!

[Disclaimer: There are no affiliate links in this review. I am an independent product reviewer. I only review products I am truly interested in. I don’t accept payment for reviews. The products I take the time to jabber on about are either items I have personally purchased, or the product has been provided for review after me incessantly nagging for a sample. All of my reviews are unbiased regardless of how the item was obtained.]